Leaders often hire coaches based on referrals and comfort instead of fit. A good coach should challenge you and demand uncomfortable work, not affirm where you are. Vet rigorously for accountability and honesty, not for someone easy to get along with.
Here's something that nobody really talks about. Most leaders, when they decide to hire a coach, make the decision badly. They take a referral and yet they don't ask any questions. They're not doing the work that it takes to really ensure that you're getting the right coach for the right team member at the right time. Another big thing that I've often encountered is that they're choosing based on who they're most comfortable with. Now, coaching is all about shifting someone, and it's a lot of the internal work is not necessarily comfortable. And so you really want to ensure you're being careful about just finding someone that feels comfortable because the work is to get comfortable with being uncomfortable, to learn to to kind of approach those areas that are not working well for you and to find ways to work through those and to enrich and enhance those. And most of the time, that work is not comfortable. A big caution is don't look for someone who's a yes person or someone who's gently walks you to the end goal and allows you to get off and get away with things and not hold you accountable and not be that honest truth that we talked about earlier.
From Stuck to Leading, Episode 2 — Meet the 5 Inner Fears Destroying Your Leadership
